


Shells in Her Hair

by faenova



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Illustrated, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Nudity, Selkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 20:03:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12239724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faenova/pseuds/faenova
Summary: On a cold day in spring, Elis's uncle John comes home late from work.He brings a selkie with him.





	Shells in Her Hair

On a cold day in spring, Elis's Uncle John comes home late from work. When he finally walks through the door to their small single-bedroom cabin, he has a sealskin draped over his arm instead of his usual catch of fish, and is followed by a woman wearing nothing but his raincoat. He goes into his room with her and comes out alone. He approaches Elis and gives her the skin.

"You're a smart girl. You can hide it better than I can," Uncle John explains. "Make _sure_  she doesn't find it," he adds with a threatening tone. It shouldn't matter, she thinks, since everyone knows a selkie can't take back her skin unless it's given freely. But she does as she's told.

So the selkie's skin is stuffed into a burlap bag and placed in the hollow of a tree where Elis used to play. And there, it gathers dust.

Upon seeing the selkie in proper lighting the next morning, Elis sees that the selkie can't be much older than herself and she's nothing like the slender fae-like descriptions from the legends. She's tall and big and has dark skin mottled in white freckles like her pelt. She has claws that most people don't realize seals have, and her eyes are completely black and unchanged from her seal form. She stands at least half a head taller than her Uncle John, and he's by no means a small man.

She's beautiful, in the way wild animals are beautiful. Primal and untamed. No wonder Uncle John asked Elis to hide the skin.

Elis makes breakfast for the three of them, but doesn't realize until Uncle John leaves without a word that the selkie hasn't touched her oatmeal. The selkie doesn't have the best grasp of English, but it doesn't take long for them to communicate that the selkie can only eat fish and other things usually in a seal's diet.

The only clothes in the house that marginally fit the selkie belong to Elis's late mother. She was short like Elis, but a heavyset woman. The clothes just barely fit around the selkie, but are far too short for her tall frame. Uncle John's boots are the only shoes in the house that fit the selkie, but he only owns the single pair he wears to work. It doesn't matter, since the selkie doesn't seem to mind going barefoot.

She’s glad the clothes are being put to good use, since they were too big for her to ever wear. She thought they would sell them after her mother passed, but Uncle John insisted on keeping them. Elis didn't know how she felt about her uncle keeping his sister-in-law's clothes hidden away where only he could access them, but at least she doesn't have to think about it anymore now.

Elis asks for her name at lunchtime, and the selkie replies "Lelah" in her raspy voice that sounds more suited to barking than human speech.

"Leyla?" Elis asks.

"Lelah," she insists on the breathier pronunciation. Elis repeats it a few times to make sure she's saying it correctly. When Lelah is happy that she's saying the name right, Elis turns her back on the woman again and goes around back to feed the chickens. They flock to her and Elis pets them occasionally while she gives them food and checks the coop for eggs.

In the afternoon, Lelah disappears. Elis discreetly checks the tree out back, but the skin is still there. She searches the house, the chicken coop, and eventually makes her way down the beaten cliffside path to the point where it splits, one path going to the road and the docks where Uncle John works; the other to the beach below the house where people rarely venture due to the large jagged rocks that make it a poor place for swimming or boating. Elis picks the latter on a whim, and finds Lelah shortly thereafter.

Lelah sits in the wet sand and lets the waves wash over her legs, her skirts shifting each time the tide comes in. Elis sits with her a while, asks her if she needs anything, and goes back to the house to continue with her chores when she says no. Lelah returns to the house just before dark, apron pockets full of seashells and other things she found on the beach. Elis admires them carefully when the trinkets are presented to her. She offers a beaten but sturdy jewelry box from underneath her cot that used to belong to her mother, the jewels that used to occupy it sold long ago when fishing didn't bring in enough money. Lelah smiles in thanks. She washes each tiny treasure before placing it carefully in the box and hiding it back underneath Elis's cot that night.

"That selkie is a beautiful creature," Uncle John tells Elis that night, when Lelah has gone into his room to sleep. "Almost as beautiful as your mother."

Elis wrinkles her nose at the mention of her mother. She's never liked the way he talked about her. "Her name is Lelah," she reminds him.

He pauses, like he's considering something. "It's awful human-sounding for a faery name," he says suspiciously. Elis can't read the expression on his face. "That'll make it easier, once I tame her and bring her into town. Don't need anyone raising eyebrows at a changeling wife." He stands up and continues talking as he goes to his bedroom. "Maybe then you can teach her how to cook."

He shuts the door behind him. Elis turns out the lights and goes to sleep.

In the mornings, Lelah wakes up first. Before dawn she creeps out of the single bedroom in the house, usually waking up Elis as she passes by the living room-turned-bedroom. John comes out shortly after, and they all have breakfast together. Elis sometimes asks Lelah for help with her daily chores, and soon Lelah offers the help without being asked. The chickens don't like Lelah, so it's the only chore she avoids for fear of being pecked at. But when it's all done, they go down to the beach together. they search tide pools and collect bits and bobs for the jewelry box that's slowly being filled with things more precious than jewels. Elis takes Lelah's hand and shows her caves in the cliffside and views of the ocean from rocky ledges that Uncle John would shout at her for climbing if he knew. Lelah takes Elis's hand and wades out into the ocean, and even without a seal's body Lelah is an exceptional swimmer. Elis has a hard time keeping up with her as they chase each other in the water, as Lelah shows her how to catch a fish with her hands, and how to find hidden gems in the seabed.

Some days, Lelah wakes up and goes straight to the beach without helping Elis with her chores. When Elis finishes and goes to the beach, Lelah won't told her hand. She just sits in the surf where the tides soak her to the bone, and she stares wistfully at the sea. Elis sits with her, close enough that their thighs touch, and she talks to Lelah. She talks about the town and the people in it. She talks about how her dad died before she was born and how his brother, Uncle John, stepped in to take care of Elis and her mother. She talks about how her mother got sick a few years back and it left her alone with Uncle John. She talks about how she wanted to be an explorer but now she doesn't know if she'll ever leave this house or Uncle John. She talks about how she stays away from Uncle John if she can help it, but he gets suspicious easy. Moreso now that Lelah is here. Sometimes, Lelah responds to her rambling, and will come out of her stupor. Sometimes, Lelah will lean into her without saying anything, and Elis is happy to give her the support. Sometimes though, Lelah doesn't even acknowledge she's there and keeps staring at the sea. Elis is happy to stay with her on those kinds of days, too.

As spring turns to summer, Lelah often emerges from the bedroom with bruises on her arms. Elis can't get up the courage to ask. Elis doesn't mention it to Uncle John, though the bruises are the same size as his hands. Lelah sits in the tides more often, staring longingly with her pitch black eyes. Lelah takes the repurposed jewelry box with her on the days she goes to the beach first thing, along with a spool of fishing wire. By the time Elis goes to see her, the box is closed and the fishing wire is stashed away inside it.

She asks what Lelah is doing with the wire, and the answer is a cryptic, "for hair," and gestures with her hands circling her head like a crown. "You'll like it," she explains further. Elis is sure she will.

As summer turns to fall, the bruises that used to only be on Lelah's arms spread to her face. She never helps with chores anymore, grabbing her box and leaving the house as soon as possible. Some nights, she doesn't come back. John yell at Elis, and demands she checks the skin in the tree hollow. When it's still there, he tells her to go to the beach to bring Lelah back. When Elis does so and comes back by herself, never wanting to force Lelah to come back, Uncle John gets mad. His anger leaves identical bruises on her skin to match Lelah's.

On a fall morning just as cold as the day Lelah first arrived, Lelah leaves the house with her box and without eating breakfast. Elis eats, watches Uncle John leave, then leaves the house and her chores and her shoes and runs down to the beach. Lelah is sitting in the tide as usual, this time with the open box in her lap. Elis joins her and sits close. The waves have pulled Lelah's dress up to reveal her legs, and there are dark bruises covering her white freckles. Elis has similar marks under her dress as well. She isn't sure if Lelah knows about them, but she doesn't mention them. "Is this what you've been working on?" she asks instead.

"Yes. Lean forward," Lelah says. Elis does so, her hair obscuring her view as she listens to Lelah rummaging around in the box. something that feels like a net is places carefully on her head, and she looks up. Lelah is wearing a net of fishing wire with the shells and sea glass and all the bits and bobs from the box expertly woven into it, draped over her hair like a shawl. The fishing wire is almost invisible in her dark hair, making it look as if the trinkets are suspended by pure magic. Elis reaches up to touch the shells in her own hair as Lelah says, "we match," and smiles. "You like it?"

"I love it," Elis whispers. She stares at Lelah almost reverently, like she's the only thing worth looking at on the beach. She belongs here. Not just on the beach, but in the ocean. She looks stifled in the dress Elis's mother used to wear. "I..." she starts. It takes a full minute to finish her thought. "I have something for you too. Stay here." She stands up, sand clinging to her wet legs and dress. She holds the woven headdress as she runs up the hill, ignoring the rocks that cut into her feet as she goes straight to the hollow tree and scrambles for the burlap bag. She removes the skin and puts the bag back, just in case, and runs all the way back down to the beach.

Lelah is waiting, the shells in her hair clinking softly with the wind that's picked up since Elis left. Lelah turns when she hears her coming, and abruptly stands up when she sees what's in Elis's arms. She stares with wide eyes as Elis silently hands the pelt over.

Then Lelah gently puts a hand on Elis's face, and pulls her into a kiss.

Elis blinks and stares awestruck as Lelah pulls away, leaving a salty ocean taste on Elis's lips. "Come with me," Lelah says. "Leave him for birds."

Elis wonders if Lelah messed up an English phrase and doesn't realize how morbid she sounds. But she guesses that Lelah knows exactly what she's saying. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"My chickens would miss me," she blurts out.

"Your chickens are evil," Lelah smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. It falls off her face, quickly replaced by a pleading expression. "Come with me?" she tries again.

Elis's breath catches in her throat. "I'm not like you," she croaks. "I can't."

"You can, if I take you." Lelah takes her hand and leans into her for their foreheads touch. Elis squeezes her eyes shut and holds her hand like it's a lifeline. "Let me take you," Lelah whispers. "Please."

Elis takes a deep breath and lets it out slow. "Okay," she says softly. "Okay, take me with you."

Lelah smiles brightly, showing off her sharp and jagged seal teeth for the first time, and she's never looked more beautiful. "Take off your dress." Lelah drops the pelt to the sand and immediately goes to work undoing the buttons down her own front. She's naked within moments, the pelt back in her arms as she wades out into the waves. Elis takes a few minutes to follow, her face flushed as she gingerly steps into the cold waves with already numb feet. Lelah is standing far out in the ocean, where the water slowly dips and rolls but doesn't quite form full waves.

"Now what?" Elis asks, shivering as a wave gently rolls past them, soaking her all the way up to her shoulders. It barely reaches Lelah's chest, though she seems unaffected by the cold water entirely. They're standing at the edge of one of the many rocks hidden under the waves, but this one seems to drop off into nothing. Elis can only see darkness under the water from here on out.

Lelah is still smiling. Elis doesn't think she's stopped since she said yes. She takes the pelt and throws it over Elis's shoulders, using it to pull her close for another kiss. Elis closes her eyes this time and forgets how to breathe for a moment, until Lelah pulls away and says, "Hold onto me tight." 

She hesitates, but wraps her arms around Lelah. She's sure every inch of her bruised body is red for how flustered she is at the situation. Lelah stretches the pelt until it's wrapped around them both, and it almost feels warm despite the freezing ocean they're standing in. Elis feels safe, being held like this, and she has the sudden urge to bury her face in the crook of Lelah's neck and stay like this forever. Lelah shifts to whisper in her ear, "Don't let go."

Elis hugs her tighter, and Lelah dives forward into the pitch black water.

They disappear under the waves.

 

**Author's Note:**

> it's been about a year and a half since i first made this for creative writing class and im finally happy enough with the minor edits and the illustrations to post.
> 
> hmu on tumblr @faenova if yall wanna talk more about fairy tale stuff


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